The Singapore prize was created to recognise writers and literary works of merit. It is a biennial award programme that spans all four official languages of Singapore — Chinese, English, Malay, and Tamil — and genres such as poetry and drama. It is part of the Singapore Writers Festival’s efforts to promote and celebrate literary achievement in the country. The prize also serves to inspire a thriving literary scene by encouraging the writing and reading of good work, irrespective of genre or language.
The winner will receive a cash prize of S$3,000 and a special hand-crafted trophy. They will also be given a 12-month gift code for the audiobook platform StoryTel. The winners will be able to use the code to purchase any title from StoryTel’s catalogue of over 2 million titles. In addition to this, the winning authors will be invited to Singapore for a week-long celebration of their work. This includes an awards ceremony and talks with global leaders, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and problem solvers.
In the Readers’ Favourite category, four writers beat out their competition. These were Ali bin Salim, Daryl Qilin Yam, Pan Zheng Lei (Pan Cheng Lui), and rmaa cureess (Rama Suresh). More than 4,000 people voted in this round of consumer choice voting, almost double the number who voted in the previous round. The four authors will each receive a cash prize of S$1,000, with voters standing the chance to win book vouchers worth $50.
A total of 43 writers were shortlisted for the 2022 Singapore Prize. The prizes are awarded in 12 categories across the country’s four official languages: Chinese, English, Malay, and, for the first time this year, Tamil. Eight of the 12 winners are first-time recipients, with a mix of established and emerging writers. The oldest winner is nonagenarian Wang Gungwu, while the youngest is Tamil writer rma.
The NUS Singapore History Prize is open to book-length publications in any language addressing any time period, theme, or field of Singaporean history. The winning entry will have made a significant contribution to our understanding of Singapore’s past. It will be judged by the Department of History, National University of Singapore. NUS has been a proud partner of the Singapore History Prize since its inception in 2014 through an endowed gift from an anonymous donor.